


A Waste of Your Time...or Maybe Not

by felineFan



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: AU, College, Drowning, Humanstuck, M/M, Merp, Multi, Pool, Smoking, Swimming, Weed, explicit for language and later smut, johnkat - Freeform, smut in later chapters, what are tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:33:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1478167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felineFan/pseuds/felineFan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat is forced to go to the pool with his little sister Nepeta and nearly drowns. Luckily he is saved by a very handsome lifeguard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Waste of Your Time

**Author's Note:**

> After a long time of rping John and Karkat on MSPARP and reading nearly every completed johnkat fanfic I can find, I've finally decided to write a fanfic of my own. Be gentle with with me it's my first time v////v No but seriously feel free to leave constructive criticism, there's always room for improvement c: Shout out to my friends Samantha and Sage on the HSWC johnkat team for beta reading for me <3 Speaking of which I am part of the johnkat team, so there will be more fics coming up shortly in the future o3o 
> 
> HOMESTUCK AND ITS CHARACTERS BELONG TO THE VERY TALENTED ANDREW HUSSIE AND NOT ME

A waste of your time, that’s what this is, a complete waste of your time. You could be at home playing video games or watching a movie, but no. Instead you’re being dragged along by your little sister to the neighborhood pool because, and you quote, “You need to get outside more often, its summer. Besides, it makes for good bonding time with Nepeta.” Bluh. What does your mom know anyway? She spends all her time inside editing your dad’s novels on social justice. And you sunburn easily thanks to your albinism, unlike your younger sister. What was your mom thinking? You told this to her but it did not stop Nepeta from begging and your mom from forcing you to go. Oh well, maybe you’ll get some quiet reading time in.

Nepeta’s excited jumping and voice breaks you from your thoughts. “Come on Karkitty! We’re almost there!” You look up from underneath your denim rivet cap to see, yep, there’s the neighborhood pool, crowded with families, couples, and children as per usual on a hot summer afternoon. Your scowl deepens. Wonderful, So much for quiet reading time.

After the two of you go through the pool house entrance and flash your passes to the person on duty, Nepeta quickly runs over to the pool where some of her neighborhood friends are.

“You gotta take your sandals off first brat!” you yell after her, walking towards one of the shaded pool chairs. After laying your towel on the chair, you sit down and take your book out of your bag. You may not be able to read in peace and quiet but you were still gonna read; you sure as hell wouldn’t begetting in the pool.

Nepeta runs back up to you and sets her own bag, towel, and sandals down by your chair. “You’re not getting in, Karkitty?” she looks at you curiously.

“Hell no, I may have been forced to come but that doesn’t mean I have to swim. Especially in a pool that’s probably been pissed in so many times. It’s surprising it’s not yellow.” You shook your head. You’d only put your swim trunks on to throw off your mom, but you kept your shirt on. It’s bad enough you had to lather on sun screen everywhere else, you didn’t want to put it on your chest and back too. Eck, you felt disgusting, you couldn’t wait to get home and take a shower.

“Ew, you’re gross Karkat! You’re just saying that so that I won’t wanna swim and we can go home. Well, it’s not gonna work! I’m gonna swim all I want!” She stuck her tongue out to emphasize her point and then ran back to her friends.

“It’s your funeral.” You call after her, but she didn’t listen. You sit back and decide you’ll give her an hour, then you’ll drag her home whether she likes it or not. You set a timer for one hour and open your book to where you’d bookmarked it. You let yourself slip into a romantic fantasy world.

Or you would, if you weren’t interrupted the next moment by a familiar lisping voice.

“Look who crawled out of his cave into sunlight.” Sollux stands next you; his arms crossed over his bare, dripping wet chest and a smirk on his face. His golden blond hair drips with water, and you’re kinda surprised to see heterochromatic hazel and brown eyes, he usually wore these red and blue glasses to cover them up, which made him lookstupid. Though as he looked now, well, if he were interested inguys like you are, then you might date him. That and if he wasn’t a complete asshole,ordating Feferi Peixes, for that matter.

You shake your head slightly to chase those thoughts away and glare up at him. “Like you’re one to talk, you’re always in your room doing who knows what on your computer. If it weren’t for me and Feferi I don’t think there’d be anyone to make sure you’re still alive in there.”

“Shut up KK, I get out plenty, more than you do it seems.” He waves his hand dismissively.

“What are you doing here anyway?” you ask with a sigh.

He gestures over to the other side of the pool, where Feferi and Mituna are laying out their towels on pool chairs. “Out on a date and of course I had to bring Mituna. But, he likes to swim so it’s cool I guess.” He shrugs.

“Well I’m trying to read, so why don’t you get back to your date instead of abandoning it, asshole.” You shoo him away with your hand.

“Geez, love you too KK.” he says, but leaves you alone anyway.

Good, now you can read.  

* * *

Your phone’s alarm breaks you out of your reading trance after an hour. Damn, you didn’t realize it’d been that long. You bookmark your place and slip your book into your bag. You stand and stretch then search the pool for your little sister. You find her exactly where she shouldn’t be.

 “Nepeta!” you yell, drawing the attention of many of your neighbors, “Get your ass out of the deep end and out of the fucking pool!” This gets you a few disapproving glares, but you don’t give a fuck.

Nepeta looks up at you startled, she’s an excellent swimmer, but your mom still doesn’t want to be in the deep end by herself yet. “But it hasn’t even been that long yet!” She whines, unfazed by your usual vulgar language.

“That doesn’t matter,” you growl, “you shouldn’t be the deep end and you know it. Come on, get out, we’re going home.”

She sticks her tongue out at you again “Make me.” She says. She knows you can’t and that pisses you off.

You stomp up to the side of the pool to yell at her closer. “Nepeta, I said-” you’re cut off when you step on something that slips out from underneath you and suddenly you’re hurling face-first into the water.

You hear Nepeta call out your name then splash! Cold water surrounds you and you’re upside down, or sideways, you can’t tell which way is up anymore. You thrash your arms and legs but it’s no use. You can’t swim, you never could, you never learned. You didn’t care enough to bother but now you wish you had. There’s water in your nose, your mouth, your lungs. You can’t feel the bottom of the pool. Suddenly everything’s going dark. You can’t see, can’t hear, can’t breathe. But you think you feel arms wrap around you as everything else slips away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for the first chapter! Let me know what you think! Also I'm trying to decide whether I'll do Karkat's or John's perspective in the next chapter(though I'm currently leaning towards John's), so let me know if you have any opinions about that. I'm not sure how many chapters this is gonna be yet but I have a basic plot planned out so I'll see where that takes me~ Hopefully, I won't be a lazy piece of shit and I'll have the next chapter up within the next day or 2 >3>


	2. Free Candy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John saves Karkat and then adorableness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I listed celestial_lights aka Sam as a co-author cuz she's beta reading for me and helping me write Dave as I can't write Dave for shit and he's gonna be a major part of this fic. So yah, enjoy.

_…twenty-eight_

_twenty-nine_

_thirty_

You move your hands up and tilt his back, opening his airway. Pinch his nose and press your lips to his, breathe in, take another breath, and breathe in again. Still no response. Another set of thirty compressions, you’re shaking, but it doesn’t matter, his life is in your hands, you have no time to be scared. Again you tilt his head back, and breathe air into his lungs, this time he starts coughing up water. You sigh with relief. _Oh thank God._

He sits up, still coughing water out of his lungs. You pat him on the back to help him out. After he’s seems to be done coughing you ask “You okay, buddy?” and give him a small smile.

He looks you up and down with wide eyes, his face is slightly flushed but you figure that’s from all the coughing. Then he looks away. “Do I look okay to you? I nearly drowned, dumbass.”

At first you’re slightly taken aback at his attitude, but then you let out a small chuckle “Well, you’re welcome, fucknuts.” You mimic sarcastically, “I guess next time I won’t save your life. And yeah, you seem fine to me if you’re able to act like that.”

He looks back at you and opens his mouth as though he’s about to defend himself when a young girl with short brown hair suddenly tackles him in a hug, bawling “Karkat! Karkat, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I’m sorry!”

Karkat’s face softens and he wraps his arms around the girl that you presume to be his sister. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s ok Nepeta, don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.”

After a moment, Nepeta leans back to look him in the eyes, still sniffling. “Are you sure, Karkitty?”

He looks as though he about to say something reassuring to her again, but your inadvertent chuckle stops him. He looks back to you however and scowls, “What are you laughing at?”

“Karkitty?” you laugh as you say it. “That’s really adorable.” You bring a hand up to your mouth to stifle your laugh.

His face changes into baffled surprise as his pale cheeks become slightly redder. His mouth opens to say something but then his sister starts laughing too. “Hehehe, yep!” she wipes away a tear, seemingly better now, “That’s I call him. Cuz he’s so cute, like a kitten!”

Karkat turns his head back to his sister, still blushing. As he tells her to hush, you can’t help but notice she’s right. He is kinda cute. His mop of blond-nearly-white hair still drips with water from the pool, and the freckles across his face and arms contrast with his pale skin. You suppose the plugs in his ears and light eyeliner around his eyes are supposed to make him look tough but they just make him seem even more adorable to you.

Nepeta turns to you after dismissing her brother’s complaints, snapping you away from your staring. You mean, staring? What staring? You weren’t staring, who was staring? “What’s your name?” She asks.

“Oh, I’m John, I’m one of the lifeguards for the communitys’ pools.” You smile and scratch the back of neck.

Nepeta peels herself away from Karkat and then she’s hugging you. “Thank you so much for saving my brother, John!” She pulls back and kisses you on the cheek and you feel your heart melt from cute overload.

“It’s no problem!” you say with a grin. “It’s my job. Besides,” you shrug, “We wouldn’t want someone as cute as Karkitty to be gone now, would we?” You reach out and ruffle his hair for emphasis. He leans back out of your reach, his arm coming up defensively.

Nepeta laughs and stands back up, letting you go “Hehehe, nope!”

Karkat stands up after her and takes her hand. “Yeah, I’m _cute,_ ” he says bitterly with a scowl. “Whatever, let’s just go home.” He starts to walk her over to where they had their stuff.

You stand and follow them. “You can’t go home just yet, you have to wait for the paramedics to get here and make sure you’re okay.” As you come to stand beside him you realize that he’s actually quite short, the top of his head appears to come up level with your chin. _Ok,_ you admit, _he is pretty darn cute_.

“Bullshit, I don’t have to do anything. Besides, I feel fine, I just want to go home already.” He starts to walk towards the exit after picking up all their stuff but Nepeta grabs his hand and stops him.

“Please wait Karkitty, Johnny says you should see the doctor and he knows what he’s talking about.” She’s pouting up at him with big green eyes and her bottom lip stuck out as far as it can go.

His expression softens again as he looks at her pout. You decide to mimic Nepeta’s expression at Karkat too, in order to maybe convince him further, “Yeah Karkitty, don’t go.”

Then he’s glaring at you again and any hope of him waiting for the paramedics is lost. “Yeah, no, I think I’ll take my chances, you dipshit.” With that he turns and pulls his sister along with him until they’ve left the pool and walk down the street out of sight.

Suddenly someone slaps you on your back, “Way to let him get away like that bro. Good luck explaining that to the EMTs. I’m sure they’ll be as pleased as a kid winning one of those team participation awards that they give away like free candy these days.”

You turn to find your fellow life guard and best bro Dave standing behind you, stoic as ever. “Ha, yeah, well I tried to get him to stay but wouldn’t.” You shrug your shoulders. “He seemed fine though. Do you think it’ll be a problem?”

He shook his head, “Nah, of course not dude. I’m sure when they end up finding him lying dead in his bed later that no one will come after you. Why would they? You saved his life, man. You’re like a fucking hero. John Egbert, MVP of the lifeguard team.”

You stare at him a moment trying to determine if he’s serious or not, then punch his arm, “That’s not funny Dave! Seriously, Should I go after him?”

“Nah, man. If he seemed fine and was breathing fine then he’ll probably be ok. You got his name at least, right? The EMTs might want to hunt him down or something equally stupid.”

“Uh, yeah, his name was Karkat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter We'll be going back to Karkitty and seeing how he feels about all this :3


	3. Fuck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat is flustered and Gamzee consoles him. Then Karkat goes to college, hmm I wonder who he finds there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter took so long, i'm a lazy sack of shit. But to make up for it this chapter is about the same length as both of the previous chapters combined.

Once you get home, you deposit Nepeta in the living room with your mother, ignore her when she calls after you, head downstairs to the basement, then to your bedroom, and into the bathroom. You jump into the shower after stripping off your wet clothes and let hot water stream over you. You try to process everything that just happened.

Surprisingly, the thing that's freaking you out the most isn't nearly drowning (well okay, you were somewhat shaken from that). What shook you most was-the way John looked at you and spoke to you. Like you were something precious.

You shook your head. God, fuck, what were you thinking? There's no way he meant it like that. All those romcoms were just fucking up your perception. He's just some stupid- stupidly hot- and muscular- lifeguard that saved your life- and had really soft lips. Really soft lips- shit you need to stop thinking about that. It's not like it was a kiss. It was just CPR. Nothing more. But- he did think you were cute.

Argh, you think as you shook your head. After finishing washing up, you turn off the water and step out of the shower, putting on your towel. You enter your bedroom and cross the room to your dresser. You begin to start pulling out something to change into when you realize you’re not alone. The mess of blankets and pillows on your bed begins to move and groan and you take a step back away from it. Then you see a familiar mop of long, shaggy black hair as the figure sits up. God dammit.

“Gamzee!” You shout and he turns toward you, his eyes half-lidded and blood-shot.

“Hey best friend.” He offers you a high lop-sided grin as per usual and it only pisses you off more.

“Did you come through the window again?! Cuz I sure as hell know my mom didn’t let you in here, she hates you. And what are you doing here anyway?” You wave your hands about for emphasis as you speak.

He stares at you a moment as he slowly processes everything you said then grins again, “Well shit, motherfucker, yeah,” he scratches the side of nose chipping more of his crappy messed up clown face paint off his face. “And, ha, we kinda hotboxed my room, a bit strong, so I had the motherfuckin’ best idea to come here and pay my best friend a visit. Heh, hey best friend.”

“We?” you ask, and at the moment blankets shuffle again revealing a boy about your height, his Mohawk getting messed up as he snuggles into your idiot friend’s side.

Gamzee rests a hand on his head and smiles down at him, “This miracle.”

“You got Tavros to smoke that shit with you?” You shake your head and throw your hands up in exasperation. “Jesus Gamzee, it’d bad enough you smoke that shit, I’d think you’d have the decency to spare your boyfriend from smoking it. And what the hell made you think that coming here would be a good idea? Are you trying to make my room smell like weed too? What’s my mom going to think when she comes down here to do laundry next time and smells that godforsaken crap?!”

“Well, fuck best friend, I’m sorry. I didn’t think of it that way, guess I wasn’t all up and thinking straight. I just wanted to see you, but if we’re all sorts of bothering you we can leave.” He frowns and you start to feel bad for being so harsh with him. Fuck his pitiful ass.

You sigh and cave, “No, just, fuck, if you’re gonna be here at least have enough common sense to use the pull-out sofa mattress instead of making my sheets smell like weed.” You look away and go back to finding something to change into. Why were you friends with this asshole?

“Heh, can do best friend.” He says with a grin and stands up, leaving his still sleeping boyfriend’s grasp. When he stands you’re reminded of how much taller he was than you; even though he always slouched slightly he still came over a foot and a half taller than you. He’s lanky as hell too, though as he carefully picks his boyfriend up, you are also reminded that the lankiness did not mean he isn’t strong. Tavros isn’t that heavy, in fact you’re pretty sure he weighs less than you, which was saying something considering your short stature, but he isn’t weightless either.

Whatever, it doesn’t matter, you grab the clothes you picked out, a plain black form-fitting tee, a pair of grey boxers and black socks, and head back to the bathroom to change. When you finish you come back into the room to find Gamzee had successfully pulled out the sofa mattress and appears to have already conked out on it with his boyfriend. Those idiots. With a heavy sigh you flop down on your bed slinking your arm over your face as your thoughts return to your prior dilemma. Your first immediate thought is the memory of his lips on yours. You immediately groan and turn onto your side, burying your face in your hands. These thoughts really aren’t gonna go away that quickly, are they?

Then suddenly arms wrap around you and you uncover your face to find the clown had gotten up at some point and is now snuggling you. Immediately you relax, and settle into his embrace. Right, this is why you were friends with him, he may be annoying as hell sometimes but he has a way of easing your worries and always listens to you whenever you need to talk. “What’s got you all up and upset, motherfucker?” he gives you a lazy smile but there’s a slight tinge of worry in his eyes.

“I, well, fuck, it’s really stupid.” You look away from him, slightly ashamed you’re getting so flustered over this -stupid- guy! Ugh.

He pats your head, “It ain’t stupid if it matters to you, bro.”

You look back at him and sigh, “Well…” You proceed to tell him everything that happened that day and he lays there listening to every word, nodding at times and patting you when you get flustered.

When you finish, he waits to make sure you’re done, then speaks. “Well, I’m just glad he kept my best bro safe, I don’t wanna be all up and losing you. And you probably ain’t gonna see the motherfucker again are you? Never seen him before, probably ain’t gonna see him again. I don’t think you got anything to worry too much about,” he tells you.

You think this over and realize he’s probably right, you certainly aren’t going back to the pool, not only to avoid embarrassment but also because it’s starting to hit you how you almost died and that scares you. You don’t want to be near a pool anytime soon. So you shouldn’t have to worry about seeing him, he didn’t go to your high school, that’s for certain, so he probably doesn’t live very close. You were going to the local community college this fall and though he looked about your age you doubted he was going to be at your college as most people were going away for college. Hell, he may already go to some far off college and only came home for the summer. You likely won’t see him again, which gives you a slight sense of relief, but, at the same time, you can’t help but feel slightly disappointed. He’d been… really sweet and nice and, well, it might have been nice to get to know him. Ugh, what are you thinking about? Even if you did see him again and try to get to know him, you’d probably just fuck up like you’ve fucked up everything else in your life. The only reason you’re going to community college is because you couldn’t get in anywhere else with your terrible grades and SAT score. Besides, who’s to say he’s interested in guys, let alone be interested in you? How even would anyone be interested in you? You’re a terrible, grumpy asshole who sticks to himself and cries from practically every romcom he watches. No one will ever be interested in you.

Suddenly a hand paps your face, your entire face, multiple times. “Shhhhh motherfucker, stop letting all these thoughts motherfucking get to you. Relax.” He’s right, you need to just stop thinking and relax.

You bat his hand out of your face and roll over, facing away from him. “You should get back to snuggling your boyfriend, I’m sure you wouldn’t want him getting the wrong idea if he woke up and found you cuddling with another guy.” You say with a sigh.

He lets out a low “hmmm” and you can feel the bed shift as he stands up. “Okay motherfucker, sleep tight.” He ruffles your mop of red hair before returning to the sofa, it creaking as he settled into it.

You let out a sigh of resignation and let your eyes droop shut. You suppose it’s for the best you don’t see John again, and decide not to worry about it anymore as you drift off to sleep.

* * *

You lift a hand to cover your eyes from the summer sun as you step out of your air-conditioned car into the August heat. Classes should not start this early in the year. Well, whatever, you were running a bit late leaving your house and you’re cutting it close already as it is, you have no time to waste as you jog up to the Fariss building, where your first class of college is in, General Biology. Admittedly you’re a bit excited for once, wondering what college will bring to you.

You get to the class just turns 8:00 am and the professor is telling everyone to sit and settle in. Most everyone has already sat down and there is unfortunately a lack of seats up front. Actually there is a lack of seats everywhere. You search the room for a seat and finally spot one towards the back. You head over there and sit down. Assuming the professor keeps this seating arrangement, your future lab partner is currently slouched over, his head resting on his arms on the table, and the hood of his jacket up. The idiot’s probably hung over from some end of the summer party the night before. You roll your eyes, having been the responsible student and heading to bed early the prior night without alcohol. Or at least that’s what you’ll say if anyone asked. Truth be told you might’ve gone to a party if you had friends to go with and were invited to one. Whatever, you face the front to see the professor writing something on board to explain to the class. You’re surprised he didn’t prepare ahead of time. The rest of the class chats on as they wait for him to begin speaking.

Just then the boy sitting next to you finally seems to realize he has company as he slowly sits up, stretching. “Ughhhh, that movie marathon last night was not a good idea.”

You look over with your eyebrows raised. Okay, maybe you had the wrong idea about him. He piqued your interest slightly because he mentioned movies and you wonder what kind of movies he might like. You might’ve asked him what kind of movies he’s into if he didn’t remove his hood at that moment and, to your horror, reveal his face, the face of the last person you expected or wanted to see. _Oh god, please don’t recognize me_ , you mentally beg.

He looks over to you, probably to look for a response, and his _(beautiful, amazing)_ blue eyes widen with surprise. His face breaks into a grin.

“Karkitty?”

. . .

Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WAHAHAHA, you do not get to get away from him so easily Karkat. Get ready for some flusteredness and fluff in the next chapters. Maybe we'll get to the smut soon. Hehehe >:3


End file.
